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ORATION 



ON THE DEATH OF 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



legislature of tlje 0tate of Jtoo-SJork, 



AT ALBANY, ON THE 6ih DAY OF APRIL, 1848, 



BY 



WILLIAM H.-SEWABD. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP THE LEGISLATURE. 


















ALBANY: 

CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN, PUBLIC PRINTER. 

1848. 



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EL.311- 



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STATE OF NEW-YORK, \ 
In Senate, April 7, 1848. $ 

Resolved, (If the Assembly concur,) That the thanks of the Legislature of the 
State of New- York be tendered to Ex-Governor William H. Seward, for the 
eloquent eulogium on John Quincy Adams, delivered at the request of both Houses 
of the Legislature, on the 6th day of April, instant, and that a copy be requested 
for publication. 

Resolved, (If the Assembly concur,) That twenty times the usual number of 
copies thereof, be printed. 

By order, 

A. H. CALHOUN, Clerk. 



IN ASSEMBLY, April 7, 1848. 

Resolved, That the Assembly concur in ths foregoing resolution. 

By order, 

P. B. PRINDLE, Clerk. 






ORATION. 



We are in the midst of extraordinary events. British- American 
Civilization and Spanish American Society have come into colli- 
sion, each in its fullest maturity. The Armies of the North have 
penetrated the chapparels at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma — 
passed the fortresses of Monterey, and rolled back upon the heart of 
Mexico the unavailing tide of strong resistance from the mountain- 
side of Buena Vista. Martial colonists are encamped on the coasts 
of California, while San Juan d'Ulloa has fallen, and the invaders 
have swept the gorge of Cerro Gordo — carried Perote and Puebla, 
and planted the banner of burning stars and ever-multiplying stripes 
on the towers of the City of the Aztecs. 

The Thirtieth Congress assembles in this conjuncture, and the De- 
bates are solemn, earnest and bewildering. Interest, Passion, Con- 
science, Freedom and Humanity, all have their advocates. Shall 
new loans and levies be granted to prosecute still farther a war so 
glorious? or shall it be abandoned? Shall we be content with the 
humiliation of the foe? or shall we complete his subjugation? 
Would that severity be magnanimous, or even just? Nay, is the 
war itself just? Who provoked, and by what unpardonable offence, 
this disastrous strife between two eminent Republics, so scandalous 
to Democratic Institutions? Where shall we trace anew the ever- 
advancing line of our empire? Shall it be drawn on the shore of 
the Rio Grande, or on the summit of the Sierra Madre? or shall 
Mexican Independence be extinguished, and our Eagle close his ad- 



venturous pinions only when he looks off upon the waves that sepa- 
rate us from the Indies? Does Freedom own and accept our profuse 
oblations of blood, or does she reject the sacrifice? Will these con- 
quests extend her domain, or will they be usurped by ever-grasping 
Slavery? What effect will this new-born ambition have upon our- 
selves? Will it leave us the virtue to continue the career of social 
progress? How shall we govern the conquered people? Shall we 
incorporate their mingled races with ourselves, or rule them with the. 
despotism of pro-consular power? Can we preserve these remote 
and hostile possessions, in any way, without forfeiting our own 
blood-bought heritage of Freedom? 

Steam and Lightning, which have become docile messengers, make 
the American People listeners to this High Debate, and anxiety and 
interest, intense and universal, absorb them all. Suddenly the Coun- 
cil is dissolved. Silence is in the Capitol, and sorrow has thrown 
its pall over the land. What new event is this? Has some Crom- 
well closed the Legislative Chambers? or has some Csesar, returning 
from his distant conquests, passed the Rubicon, seized the purple, and 
fallen in the Senate beneath the swords of self-appointed execution- 
ers of his country's vengeance? No! Nothing of all this. What 
means, then, this abrupt and fearful silence? What unlooked for ca- 
lamity has quelled the debates of the Senate and calmed the excite- 
ment of the People? An old man, whose tongue once indeed was elo- 
quent but now through age had well nigh lost its cunning, has fallen 
into the swoon of Death. He was not an actor in the drama of 
conquest — nor had his feeble voice yet mingled in the lofty argu- 
ment — 

" A grey-haired Sire, whose eye intent 
Was on the visioned Future bent." 

And now he has dreamed out at last the troubled dream of life. 
Sighs of unavailing grief ascend to Heaven. Panegyric, fluent in 
long-stifled praise, performs its office. The Army and the Navy pay 
conventional honors, with the pomp of national woe, and then the 



hearse moves onward. It rests appropriately on its way in the hall 
where Independence was proclaimed, and again under the Dome 
where Freedom was born. At length the Tomb of John Adams opens 
to receive a Son, who also, born a subject of a King, had stood as a 
Representative of his emancipated country, before Principalities and 
Powers, and had won by merit, and worn without reproach, the Ho- 
nors of the Republic. 

From that scene so impressive in itself, and impressive because it ne- 
ver before happened, and can never happen again, we have come up to 
this place surrounded with the decent drapery of public mourning, on 
a day set apart by authority, to recite the History of the Citizen 
who, in the ripeness of age, and fullness of honors, has thus descend- 
ed to his rest. It is fit to do so, because it is by such exercises that 
nations regenerate their early virtues and renew their constitutions. 
All nations must perpetually renovate their virtues and their consti- 
tutions, or perish. Never was there more need to renovate ours than 
now, when we seem to be passing from the safe old policy of peace 
and moderation into a career of conquest and martial renown. Never 
was the duty of preserving our free institutions, in all their purity, 
more obvious than it is now, when they have become beacons to 
mankind in what seems to be a general dissolution of their ancient 
social systems. 

The history of John Quincy Adams is one that opens no new truth 
in the philosophy of virtue; for fhere is no undiscovered truth in 
that philosophy. But it is a history that sheds marvellous confirma- 
tion on maxims which all mankind know, and yet are prone to un- 
dervalue and forget. The exalted character before us was formed by 
the combination of virtue, courage, assiduity and modesty, under fa- 
vorable conditions, with native talent and genius, and illustrates the 
truth that, in morals as in nature, simplicity is the chief element of 
the sublime. 



John Quincy Adams was fortunate in his lineage; in the period?, 
and in the place of his nativity; in all the circumstances of educa- 
tion; in the age and country in which he lived; in the incidents, as 
well as the occasions of his public service; and in the period and 
manner of his death. He was a descendant from one of the Puritan 
planters of Massachusetts, and a Son of the most intrepid actor in 
the Revolution of Independence. Quincy, the place of his birth, 
is a plain bounded on the west by towering granite hills, and swept 
without defence by every wind from the ocean. Its soil in ancient 
times was as sterile as its climate is always rigorous. 

Born on the eleventh day of July, 1767, in the hour of the agita- 
tion of rebellion, and reared within sight and sound of gathering 
war, the earliest political ideas he received were such as John Adams 
then uttered: "We must fight." "Sink or swim — live or die — sur- 
vive or perish with my country, is my unalterable determination." 
A mother fervently pious, and eminent in intellectual gifts, directed 
with more than maternal assiduity and solicitude the education of 
him who was to render her own name immortal. Never quite di- 
vorced from home, yet twice and for long periods in his youth a 
visitor in Europe, he enjoyed always the parental discipline of one 
of the Founders of the American State, and often the daily conver- 
sation of Franklin and Jefferson; and combined travel in France, 
Spain, England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, and even 
diplomatic experience, with the instructions of the schools of Paris, of 
the University at Leyden, and of Harvard University at Cambridge; 
and all these influences fell upon him at a period when his country, 
then opening the way to Human Liberty through trials of fire, fixed 
the attention of mankind. 

The establishment of the Republic of the United States of Ame- 
rica is the most important secular event in the history of the Human 
Race. It did not disentangle the confused theory of the origin of 
Government, but cut through the bonds of power existing by pre- 
scription at a blow; and thus directly and immediately affected the 



opinions and the actions of men in every part of the civilized world. 
It animated them every where to seek freedom from despotic power 
and aristocratic restraint. Whenever and wherever they have since 
moved, either by peaceful agitation or by physical force, to melio- 
rate systems of government, whether in France at the close of the 
last century, or afterward on the second subversion of the elder 
branch of the Bourbons, or in the recent overthrow of the constitu- 
tional King, or in Ireland, or in England, or in Italy, or in Greece, 
or in South America, whether they succeeded or failed, there in the 
tumult or in the strife was the spirit of the American Revolution. 
" It gave an example of a great people, not merely emancipating 
themselves, but governing themselves, without either a monarch to 
control, or an aristocracy to restrain them; and it demonstrated for 
the first time in the history of the world, contrary to the predictions 
and theories of speculative philosophy, that a great nation, when 
duly prepared, is capable of self-government by purely Republican 
Institutions." 

But the establishment of the American Republic was too great an 
achievement to be made all at once. It was a Drama of five grand 
acts, each of vhich filled a considerable period, and called upon the 
stage, actors of peculiar powers and distinguished virtues. Those 
acts were, Colonization, Preparation, Revolution, Organization, Con- 
solidation. 

Two of these acts were closed before John Quincy Adams was 
born. The third, the Revolution, the shortest of them all, dazzles 
the contemplation by the rapidity and the martial character of its 
incidents. The fourth, the Organization of the Government, by the 
splendors of genius elicited, and the felicity of the new form of gov- 
ernment presented, satisfies the superficial inquirer that, when the 
Constitution had been adopted, nothing remained to perfect the great 
achievement. But other nations have had successful revolutions, and 
have set up free constitutions, and have yet sunk again under rein- 
vigorated despotism. The Consolidation of the American Republic, 



8 

the crowning act, occupied forty years, reaching from 1789 to 1829, 
During that period, John Quincy Adams participated continually in 
public affairs, and ultimately became the principal actor. 

The new government was purely an experiment. In opposition to 
fixed habits of mankind, it established suffrage practically universal, 
and representation so perfect that not one Legislative House only, 
but both Houses; not legislative officers only, but all officers, Execu- 
tive, Ministerial, and even Judicial, were directly or indirectly elec- 
ted by the People. The longest term of the Senatorial trust was but 
six years, and the shortest only two, and even the tenure of the Ex- 
ecutive power was only four years. This government, betraying so 
much popular jealousy, was invested with only special and limited 
sovereignty. The conduct of merely municipal affairs was distribu- 
ted within the States, among governments even more popular than 
the Federal structure, and without whose ever-renewed support that 
structure must fall. 

The government thus constituted, so new, so complex and artifi- 
cial, was to be consolidated, in the midst of difficulties at home, and 
of dangers abroad. The Constitution had been adopted only upon 
convictions of absolute necessity, and with evanescent dispositions of 
compromise. By nearly half of the people it was thought too feeble 
to sustain itself, and secure the rights for which governments are in- 
stituted among men. By as many it was thought liable to be con- 
verted into an over-shadowing despotism, more formidable and more 
odious than the monarchy which had been subverted. These con- 
flicting opinions revealed themselves in like discordance upon every 
important question of administration, and were made the basis of 
parties, which soon became jealous and irreconcilable, and ultimately 
inveterate and even in some degree disloyal. 

These domestic feuds were aggravated by pernicious influences 
from Europe. In the progress of western civilization, the nations of 
the earth had become social. The new Republic could not, like the 
Celestial Empire, or that of Japan, confine itself within its own 



boundaries and exist without national intercourse. It had entered 
the family of nations. But the position it was to assume, and the 
advantages it was to be allowed to enjoy, were yet to be ascertained 
and fixed. Its independence, confessed to be only a doubtful experi- 
ment at home, was naturally thought ephemeral in Europe. Its ex* 
ample was ominous, and the European Powers willingly believed that, 
if discountenanced and baffled, America would soon relapse into co- 
lonial subjugation. Such prejudices were founded in the fixed habits 
of society. Not only the thirteen colonies, but the whole American 
hemisphere, had been governed by European States from the period 
of its discovery. The very soil belonged to the Trans-atlantic mo- 
narchs by discovery, or by ecclesiastical gift. Dominion over it at- 
tached by divine right to their persons, and drew after it obligations 
of inalienable allegiance upon those who became the inhabitants of the 
new world. The new world was indeed divided between different 
powers, but the system of government was the same. It was admin- 
istered for the benefit of the Parental State alone. Each power pro- 
hibited all foreign trade with its colonies, and all intercourse between 
them and other plantations, supplied its colonies with what they need- 
ed from abroad, interdicted their manufactures and monopolized their 
trade. The prevalence of this system over the whole continent of 
America and the adjacent Islands prevented all enterprise in the co- 
lonies, discouraged all improvement, and retarded their progress to 
independence. 

The American Revolution sundered these bonds only so far as they 
confined thirteen of the British colonies, and left the remaining Bri- 
tish dominions, and the continent from Georgia around Cape Horn 
to the Northern Ocean, under the same thraldom as before. Even 
the United States had attained only physical independence. The mo* 
ral influences of the colonial system oppressed them still. Their 
trade, their laws, their science, their literature, their social connec- 
tions, their ecclesiastical relations, their manners and their habits 
were still colonial; and their thoughts continually clung around the 
ancient and majestic States of the Eastern Continent. 



10 

The American Revolution, so happily concluded here, broke out in 
France simultaneously with the beginning of Washington's adminis- 
tration. The French nation passed in fifteen years from absolute 
despotism under Louis XVI, through all the phases of democracy to 
a military despotism under Napolkon Bonaparte; and retained through 
all these changes, only two characteristics — unceasing ferocity of fac- 
tion, and increasing violence of aggression against foreign States. 
The scandal of the French Revolution fell back upon the United 
States of America, who were regarded as the first disturbers of the 
ancient social system. The principal European monarchs combined, 
under the guidance of England, to arrest the presumptuous career of 
France and extirpate democracy by the sword. Nevertheless, the 
Republican cause, however odious in Europe, was our national cause. 
The sympathies of a large portion of the American People, could 
not be withdrawn from the French Nation; which always claimed, 
even when marshalled into Legions under the Corsican Conqueror, 
to be fighting the battles of freedom; while, on the other side, the 
citizens who regarded innovation as worse than tyranny, considered 
England and her allies as engaged in sustaining the cause of Order, 
of Government, and of Society itself. 

The line already drawn between the American People in regard to 
their organic law, naturally became the dividing line of the popular 
sympathies in the great European conflict. Thus deeply furrowed, 
that line became " a great gulf fixed." The Federal Party uncon- 
sciously became an English Party, although it indignantly disowned 
the epithet; and the Republican Party became a French Party, al- 
though with equal sincerity it denied the gross impeachment. Each 
belligerent was thus encouraged to hope some aid from the United 
States, through the ever-expected triumph of its friends; while both 
conceived contemptuous opinions of a People who, from too eager 
interest in a foreign fray, suffered their own national rights to be . 
trampled upon with impunity by the contending States. 



11 

Washington set the new machine of government in motion. He 
formed his Cabinet of recognized leaders of the adverse parties, 
Hamilton and Knox of the Federal Party were balanced by Jeffer- 
son and Randolph of the adverse party. " Washington took part 
with neither, but held the balance between them with the scrupulous 
justice which marked his lofty nature." On the 25th of April, 
1793, he announced the neutrality of the United States between the 
belligerents, and his decision, without winning the respect of either, 
exasperated both. Each invaded our national rights more flagrantly 
than before, and excused the injustice by the plea of necessary re- 
taliation against its adversary, and each found willing apologists in a 
sympathizing faction in our own country. 

Commercial and Political Relations were to be established be- 
tween the United States and the European Powers in this season of 
conflict. Ministers were needed who could maintain and vindicate 
abroad the same impartiality practiced by Washington at home. 
There was one citizen eminently qualified for such a trust in such a 
conjuncture. Need I say that citizen was the younger Adams, and 
that Washington had the sagacity to discover him 1 

John Quincy Adams successively completed missions at the Hague, 
and at Berlin, in the period intervening between 1794 and 1801, 
with such advantage and success, that in 1802 he was honored by 
his native Commonwealth with a seat as her representative in the 
Senate of the United States. The insults offered to our country by 
the belligerents increased in aggravation as the contest between 
them became more violent and convulsive. France, in 1804, laid 
aside even the name and forms of a Republic, and the First Consul, 
dropping the emblems of popular power, placed the long-coveted di- 
adem upon his brow, where its jewels sparkled among the laurels he 
had won in the conquest of Italy. Washington's administration had 
passed away, leaving the American People in sullen discontent, 
John Adams had succeeded, and had atoned by the loss of power for 
the offence he had given by causing a just but unavailing war to be 



12 

declared against France. Jefferson was at the head of the govern- 
ment ; he thought the belligerents might be reduced to forbearance 
by depriving them of our commercial contributions of supplies, and 
recommended, first, an embargo, and then non-intercourse. Britain 
was an Insular and France a Continental power. The effects of 
these measures would therefore be more severe on the former than 
on the latter, and unhappily they were more severe on our own 
country than on either of the offenders. 

Massachusetts was the chief commercial State in the Union. She 
saw the ruin of her commerce involved in the policy of Jefferson, 
and regarded it as an unworthy concession to the Usurper of the 
French Throne. In this emergency John Quincy Adams turned his 
back on Massachusetts, and threw into the uprising scale of the ad- 
ministration, the weight of his talents and of his already eminent 
fame. Massachusetts instructed the recusant to recant. He refused 
to obey, arid resigned his place. His change of political relations 
astounded the country, and, with the customary charity of partizan 
zeal, was attributed to venality. It is now seen by us in the light 
reflected upon it by the habitual independence, unquestioned purity, 
and lofty patriotism of his whole life; and thus seen, constitutes only 
the first marked one of many instances wherein he broke the green 
withes which Party fastened upon him, and maintained the cause of 
his country, referring the care of his fame to God and to an impar- 
tial Posterity. Like Decimus Brutus, whom Julius Caesar saluted 
among his executioners with the exclamation " Et tu Brute!" John 
Quincy Adams was not unfaithful, but he could not be obliged where 
he was not left free. 

Jefferson retired in 1809, leaving to his successor, the scholastic 
and peace loving Madison, the perilous legacy of perplexed foreign 
relations, and embittered domestic feuds. Great Britain now filled 
the measure of exasperations, by insolently searching our vessels on 
the high seas, and impressing into her marine, all whom she chose 



13 

to suspect of having been born in her allegiance, even though they 
had renounced it and had assumed the relations of American citizens. 
War was therefore imminent and inevitable. Russia was then com- 
ing forward to a position of commanding influence in Europe, and her 
youthful Emperor Alexander had won by his chivalrous bearing, the 
respect of mankind. John Quincy Adams was wisely sent by the 
United States, to establish relations of amity with the great power 
of the North, and while he was thus engaged, the flames of Europe- 
an war, which had been so long averted, involved his own country. 
War was declared against Great Britain. 

It was just. It was necessary. Yet it was a war that dared Great 
Britain to re-assert her ancient sovereignty. It was a war with a 
power whose wealth and credit were practically inexhaustible, a 
power whose navy rode unchecked over all the seas, and whose im- 
pregnable garrisons encircled the globe. 

Against such a power, the war was waged by a Nation that had 
not yet accumulated wealth, nor established credit, nor even opened 
avenues suitable for transporting munitions of war through its ex- 
tended territories — that had only the germ of a navy, an inconsider- 
able army, and not one substantial fortress. Yet such a war, under 
such circumstances, was denounced as unnecessary and unjust, though 
for no better reason than because greater contumelies had been en- 
dured at the hands of France. Thus a domestic feud, based on the 
very question of the war itself, enervated the national strength, and 
encouraged the mighty adversary. 

The desperate valor displayed at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, at 
Fort Erie and Plattsburgh, and the brilliant victories won in contests ' 
between single ships of war on the Ocean and armed fleets on the 
Lakes, vindicated the military prowess of the United States, but 
brought us no decisive advantages. A suspension of the conflict in 
Europe followed Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, and left 
America alone opposed to her great adversary. Peace was necessary, 
because the national credit was exhausted — because the fortunes of 



14 

the war were inclining against us — and because the opposition to it 
was ripening into disorganizing councils. Adams had prepared the 
way by securing the mediation of Alexander. Then in that critical 
period, associated with Russell, Bayard, the learned and versatile 
Gallatin, and the eloquent and chivalric Clay, he negotiated with 
firmness, with assiduity, with patience, and with consummate ability, 
a definitive Treaty of Peace — a Treaty of Peace which, although it 
omitted the causes of the War already obsolete, saved and establish- 
ed and confirmed in its whole integrity the Independence of the Re- 
public — a Treaty of Peace that yet endures, and we willingly hope, 
may endure forever. 

After fulfilling a subsequent mission at the Court of St. James, the 
Pacificator entered the domestic service of the Country as Secretary 
of State in the administration of James Monroe; and at the expira- 
of that administration became President of the United States. He 
attained the honors of the Republic at the age of fifty-seven, in the 
forty-ninth year of Independence. He was sixth in the succession, 
and with him closed the line of Chief Magistrates who had rendered 
to their country some tribute of their talents in civil or military ser- 
vice in the war of Independence. 

John Quincy Adams, on entering civil life, had found the Repub- 
lic unstable. He retired in 1829, leaving it firmly established. It 
was thus his happy fortune to preside at the completion of that work 
of Consolidation, the beginning of which was the end of the labors 
of Washington. 

John Quincy Adams engaged in this great work while yet in pri- 
vate life, in 1793. He showed to his fellow citizens, in a series of 
essays, the inability of the French people to maintain Free Institu- 
tions at that time, and the consequent necessity of American neu- 
trality in the European war. These publications aided Washington 
so much the more because they anticipated his own decision. Adams 
sustained the same great cause when he strengthened the administra- 
tion of Jefferson against the preponderating influence of Great Bri- 



15 

tain. His diplomatic services in Holland and Russia secured, at a 
critical period, a favorable consideration in the Courts of those Coun- 
tries, which conduced to the same end; and his brilliant success in 
restoring Peace to the Country so sorely pressed, relieved her from 
her enemies, reassured her, and gave to sceptical Europe conclusive 
proof that her Republican Institutions were destined to endure. 

The administration of John Quincy Adams blends so intimately 
with that of Monroe, in which he was chief Minister, that no divid- 
ing line can be drawn between them. Adams may be said, without 
derogation from the fame of Monroe, to have swayed the Govern- 
ment during his Presidency ; and with equal truth, Monroe may be 
admitted to have continued his administration through that of his 
successor. 

The consolidation of the Republic required that faction should be 
extinguished. Monroe began this difficult task cautiously and pur- 
sued it with good effect. John Quincy Adams completed the achieve- 
ment. The dignity and moderation, which marked his acceptance of 
the highest trust which a free People could confer, beautifully fore- 
shadowed the magnanimity with which it was to be discharged. He 
confessed himself deeply sensible of the circumstances under which it 
had been conferred : 

All my predecessors (he said) have been honored with majorities of the Electoral 
voices, in the primary Colleges. It has been my fortune to be placed, by the divi- 
sions of sentiment prevailing among our countrymen, on this occasion, in competi- 
tion . friendly and honorable, with three of my fellow citizens, all justly enjoying, in 
eminent degrees, the public favor ; and of whose worth, talents and services no one 
entertains a higher and more respectful sense than myself. The names of two of 
them were, in the fulfilment of the provisions of the Constitution, presented to the 
selection of the House of Representatives, in concurrence with my own, names close- 
ly associated with the glory of the nation, and one of them farther recommended by 
a larger majority of the primary electoral suffrages than mine. In this state of 
things, could my refusal to accept the trust thus delegated to me give an opportuni- 
ty to the People to form and to express, with a nearer approach to unanimity, the 
object of their preference, I should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of this emi- 
nent charge, and to submit the decision of this momentous question again to their 
determination. 



16 

It argued a noble consciousness of virtue to express on such an 
occasion, so ingenuously, the emotions of a generous ambition. 

He displaced the same great quality no less when he called to the 
post of chief minister, in spite of clamors of corruption, Henry Clay, 
that one of his late Rivals who alone among his countrymen had the 
talents and generosity which the responsibilities of the period ex- 
acted. 

John Quincy Adams signalized his accession to the post of dan- 
gerous elevation by avowing the sentiments concerning parties by 
which he was inflexibly governed throughout his administration : 

Of the two great political parties [he said] which have divided the opinions and 
feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now admit, that both have con- 
tributed splendid talents, spotless integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested 
sacrifices, to the formation and administration of the government, and that both 
have required a liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The 
Revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the 
government of the United States first went into operation under the constitution, ex- 
cited collisions of sentiments, and of sympathies, which kindled all the passions and 
embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war, and the Union 
was shaken to its centre. This time of trial embraced a period of five-and-twenty 
years, during which the policy of the Union in its relations with Europe constituted 
the principal basis of our own political divisions, and the most arduous part of the 
action of the Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the wars of the 
French Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain, 
this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time no difference of 
principle, connected with the theory of Government, or with our intercourse with 
foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in force sufficient to sustain a con- 
tinued combination of parties, or given more than wholesome animation to public 
sentiment or legislative debate. Our political creed, without a dissenting voice that 
can be heard, is that the will of the people is the source and the happiness of the 
people is the end of all legitimate government upon earth — that the best security 
for the beneficence, and the best guaranty against the abuse of power, consists in 
the freedom, the purity, and the frequenoy of popular elections. That the General 
Government of the Union, and the separate governments of the States, are all sov- 
ereignties of legitimate powers ; fellow servants of the same masters, uncontrolled 
within their respective spheres — uncontrollable by encroachments on each other. If 
there have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy 
was a government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common 
concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled. If there have been 
projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have 
been scattered to the winds. If there have been dangerous attachments to one 



17 

foreign nation, and antipathies against another, they have been extinguished. Ten 
years of peace at home and abroad have assuaged the animosities of political con- 
tention, and blended into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion. 
There still remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, 
to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore followed 
the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor 
against each other, of embracing, as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to 
talents and virtue alone that confidence which, in times of contention for principle, 
was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party communion. 

During the administration of John Quincy Adams, he was really 
the Chief Magistrate. lie submitted neither his reasm nor his con- 
science to the control of any partisan cabal. No man was appoint- 
ed to office in obedience to political dictation, and no faithful pub- 
lic servant was proscribed. The result rewarded his magnanimity. 
Faction ceased to exist. When South Carolina, a few years after- 
ward, assumed the very ground that the ancient Republican party 
had indicated as lawful and constitutional, and claimed the right and 
power to set aside within her own limits acts of Congress which she 
pronounced void, because they transcended the Federal authority, she 
called on the Republican party throughout the Union in vain. The 
dangerous heresy had been renounced forever. Since that time there 
has been no serious project of a combination to resist the laws of 
the Union, much less of a conspiracy to subvert the Union itself. 

What though the elements of political strife remain? They are 
necessary for the life of free States. What though there still are 
parties, and the din and turmoil of their contests are ceaselessly 
heard? They are founded now on questions of mere administration, 
or on the more ephemeral questions of personal merit. Such parties 
are dangerous only in the decline, not in the vigor of Republics. 
Rome was no longer fit for freedom, and needed a Dictator and a 
Sovereign, when Pompey and Caesar divided the citizens. What 
though the magnanimity of Adams was not appreciated, and his con- 
temporaries preferred his military competitor in the subsequent elec- 
tion? The sword gathers none but ripe fruits, and the masses of any 

2 



18 

people will sometimes prefer them to the long maturing harvest, 
which the statesmen of the living generations sow, to be reaped by 
their successors. For all this Adams cared not. He had extinguish- 
ed the Factions which for forty years had endangered the State. He 
had left on the records of History instructions and an example 
teaching how Faction could be overthrown, and his country might 
resort to them when danger should recur. For himself he knew well, 
none knew better, that 

"He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find 
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow. 

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 
Must look down on the hate of those below. 

Though high above the sun of glory glow, 
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, 

Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 
Contending tempests on his naked head, 

And thus reward the toils which to their summits led. ' 

The federal authority had so long been factiously opposed, that 
the popular respect for its laws needed to be renewed. The State 
of Georgia presented the fit occasion. She insisted on expelling 
forcibly remnants of Indian Tribes, within her limits, in virtue of a 
treaty which was impeached for fraud, and came for revision before 
the Supreme Court and the Senate. The President met the emer- 
gency with boldness and decision. The demonstration thus given 
that good faith should be practiced, and the law have its way, no 
matter how unequal the litigating parties, operated favorably toward 
restoring the moral influence of the government. That influence, 
although, sometimes checked, has recently increased in strength, until 
the Federal authority is universally regarded as final, and Liberty 
ao-ain walks confident] I in hand with Law. 

o J 

m 

John Quincy Adams " loved peace and ensued it." He loved 
peace as a Christian, because War was at enmity with the spirit and 
precepts of a Religion which he heid to be Divine. Asa Statesman 
and Magistrate he loved Peace, because war was not merely injuri- 
ous to national piosperity, but because whether successful or adverse, 



19 

it was subversive of Liberty. Democracies are prone to war, and 
war consumes them. He favored, therefore all the philanthropic 
efforts of the age to cultivate the spirit of peace, and looked for- 
ward with benevolent hops to the ultimate institution of a General 
Congress of Nations for the adjustment of their controversies. But 
he was no visionary and no enthusiast. He knew that as yet war 
was often inevitable — that pusillanimity provoked it, and that Na- 
tional Honor was national property of the highest value; because 
it was the best National Defence. He admitted only defensive war — ■ 
but he did not narrowly define it. He held ihat to be a defensive 
war, which was waged to sustain what could not be surrendered or 
relinquished without compromising the independence, the just influ- 
ence, or even the proper dignity of the State. Thus he had sup- 
ported the war with Great Britain — thus in later years he sustained 
President Jackson in his bold demonstration against France, when 
that power wantonly refused to perform the stipulations it had made 
in a treaty of indemnity; and thus he yielded his support to what 
was thought a warlike measure of the present Administration in the 
diplomatic controversy with Great Britain concerning the Territory 
of Oregon. The living and the dead have mutual rights, and there- 
fore it must be added that he considered the present war with Mex- 
ico as unnecessary, unjust and criminal. His opinion on this exci- 
ting question is among those on which he referred himself to that 
future age which he so often constituted the umpire between him- 
self and his contemporaries. 

With such principles on the subject of War, he regarded the es- 
tablishment of a system of National Defence as a necessary policy 
for consolidating the Republic. He prosecuted, therefore, on a large 
scale, the work of fortification, and defended against popular opposi- 
tion the Institution for the cultivation of Military Science,' which 
has so recently vindicated that early favor through the learning, 
valor, patriotism and humanity exhibited by its pupils on the fields 
of Mexico. But with that jealousy of the military spirit which nev- 
er forsakes the wise Republican Statesman, he co-operated in redu- 



20 



cing (he Army to the lowest scale commensuiate with its necessary 
efficiency : 

It was a vain and dangerous delusion (ho said) to believe that in the present or 
any probable condition of the world, a commerce so extensive* as ours could exist 
without the continual support of a military marine — the only arm by which the 
power of a Confederacy could be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and the only 
standing force which could never be dangerous to our own liberties. 

The enlargement of our Navy, under the influence of these opin- 
ions, is among the measures of National consolidation we owe to 
him; and the Institution for Naval Education we enjoy, is a recent 
result of his early suggestions. 

But John Quincv Adams, relied for National Security and Peace, 
mainly on an enlightened and broad system of Civil Policy. He 
looked through the future combinations of States, and studied the 
accidents to which they were exposed, that he might seasonably re- 
move causes of future conflict. His genius, when exercised in this 
lofty duty, played in its native element. He had cordially approved 
the measures by which Washington had secured the free navigation of 
the Mississippi. He approved the acquisition of Louisiana, although 
with Jefferson he insisted on a preliminary amendment of the Con- 
stitution for that purpose. He had no narrow bigotry, concerning 
the soil to which the Institutions of our fathers should be confined, 
and no local prejudice against their extension in any direction, re- 
quired by the public security, if the extension should be made with 
Justice, Honor and Humanity. 

The acquisition of Louisiana had only given us additional territo- 
ry, fruitful in new commerce, to be exposed to dangers which remained 
to be overcome. Spain still possessed, beside the Island of Cuba, 
the Peninsula of the Floridas, and thus held the keys of the Mississip- 
pi. The real Independence, the Commercial and the Moral Indepen- 
dence, of the United States, remained to be effected at the close of 
the European wars, and of our own war with England. Our politi- 



21 

cal Independence had been confirmed, and that was all. John Qoin- 
cy Adams addressed himself as Secretary of State, to the subversion 
of what remained of the Colonial system. He commenced by an 
auspicious purchase of tiie Floiidas, which gave us important mari- 
time advantages on the Gulf of Mexico, while it continued our At- 
lantic sea-board unbroken from the Bay of Fundy to the Sabine. 

The ever-advancing American Revolution was at the same time 
opening the way to complete disenthraiment. The Spanish-Ameri- 
can Provinces revolted, and seven new Republics, with Constitutions 
not widely differing from our own, Buenos Ayres, Guatemala, Co- 
lombia, Mexico, Chili, Central America, and Peru, suddenly claimed 
andience and admission among the Nations of the Earth. The Peo- 
ple of those Countries were but doubtfully prepared to maintain their 
contest for Independence, or to support Republican Institutions. 
But on the other side, Spain was enervated and declining. She ap- 
plied to the Holy League of Europe for their aid, and the new Re- 
publics appealed to the United States for that recognition which 
could not fail to impart strength. The question was momentous. 
The ancient Colonial system was at stake. All Europe was inter- 
ested in maintaining it. The Holy League held Europe fast bound 
to the rock of Despotism, and were at liberty to engage the United 
States in a war for the subversion of their independence, if they 
should dare to extend their aid or protection to the rebellious Colo- 
nies in South America. 

Such a war would be a war of the two Continents — an universal 
war. Who could foretell its termination, or its dread results? But 
the emancipation of Spanish America was necessary for our own 
larger freedom, and our own complete security. That freedom and 
that security, required that the nations of Europe should relax their 
grasp on the American Continent. The question was long and anx- 
iously debated. The American People hesitated to hazard, for spe- 
culative advantages, the measure of independence already obtained. 



22 

Monroe and Adams waited calmly and firmly. The impassioned 
voice of Hexr* Clay rose from the Chamber of Representatives. It 
rang through the Continent like the notes of the clarion, inspiring 
South America with new resolution, and North America with the 
confidence the critical occasion demanded. That noble appeal was 
answered. South America stood firm, and North America was 
ready. Then it was that John Quincy Adams, with those generous 
impulses, which the impatient blood of his revolutionary Sire al- 
ways prompted, and with that enlightened sagacity which never 
misapprehended the interests of his country, nor mistook the time 
nor the means to secure them, obtained from the Administration and 
from Congress the acknowledgment of the independence of the 
young American Nations. To give decisive effect to this great mea- 
sure, Monroe, in 1823, solemnly declared to the world, that thence- 
forth any attempt by any Foreign Power to establish the Colonial 
system in any part of this Continent, already emancipated, would be 
resisted as an aggression against the independence of the United 
States. On the accession of Adams to the Administration of the 
Government, the vast American continental possessions of Brazil 
separated themselves from the Crown of Portugal and became an in- 
dependent State. Adams improved these propitious and sublime 
events by negotiating treaties of reciprocal trade with the youthful 
Nations; and, concurring with Monroe, accepted in behalf of the 
United States their invitation to a General Congress of American 
States to be held at Panama, to cement relations of Amity among 
themselves, and to consider, if it should become necessary, the pro- 
per means to repel the apprehended interference of the Holy League 
of Europe. 

This h.st measure transcended the confidence of a large and re- 
spectable portion of the American People. But its moral effect was 
needed to secure the stability of the South American Republics. 
Adams persevered, and in defending his course, gave notice to the 
Powers of Europe, by this bold declaration, that the determination of 
the United States was inflexible: 



23 

" If it be asked, whether this meeting, and the principles which may be adjusted 
and settled by it, as rides of intercourse between American Nations, may not plvo 
umbrage to European Powers, or offence to Spain, it is deemed a sufficient answer, 
that our attendance at Panama can give no just cause of umbrage, or offence to 
either, and that the United States will stipulate nothing there, which can give such 
cause. Here the right of inquiry into our purposes and measures must stop. Tho 
Holy League of Europe, itself, was formed without inquiring of tho United States, 
whether it would or would not give umbrage to them. The fear of giving umbrage 
to the Holy League of Europe was urged as a motive for denying to the American 
Nations the acknowledgment of their independence. The Congress and the admin- 
istration of that day, consulted their rights and their duties, not their fears. The 
United States must still, as heretofore, take counsel from their duties, rather than 
their fears." 

Contrast fellow-citizens, this Declaration of John Quivcy Adams, 
President of the United States in 1825, with the Proclamation of 
neutrality, between the belligerents of Europe, made by Washington 
in 1793, with the querulous complaints of your Ministers against the 
French Directory and the British Ministry, at the close of the last 
century, and with the acts of Embargo and Non-Intercourse at the 
beginning of the present century, destroying our own commerce to 
conquer forbearance from the intolerant European Powers. Learn 
from this contrast, the epoch of the Consolidation of the Republic. 
Thus instructed, do honor to the Statesman and Magistrate by whom, 
not forgetting the meed due to his illustrious compeers, the Colonial 
System was overthrown throughout Spanish America, and the Inde- 
pendence of the United States was completely and finally consum- 
mated. 

The intrepid and unwearied Statesman now directed his attention 
to the remnants of + he Colonial System still preserved in the Cana- 
das and West Indies. Great Britain, by Parliamentary, measures, 
had undermined our manufat hires, and, receiving only our raw mate- 
rials, repaid us with fabrics manufactured from them, while she ex- 
cluded us altogether from the carrying trade with her Colonial pos- 
sessions. John Quincy Adams, sought to counteract this injurious 
legislation, by a revenue system, which should restore the manufac- 
turing industry of the country, while he oflered reciprocal trade as a 



24 

compromise. His administration ended during a beneficial trial of 
this vigorous policy. But it taxed too severely the patriotism of 
some of the States, and was relinquished by his successors. 

Indolence begets degeneracy, and immobility is the first stage of 
dissolution. John Quincy Adams sought not merely to consolidate 
Republic, but to perpetuate it. For this purpose he bent vast 
efforts with success, to such a policy of internal improvement as 
would increase the facilities of communication and intercourse be- 
tween the States, and bring into being that great internal trade 
wliich must ever constitute the strongest bond of Federal Union. 
Wherever a light house has been erected, on our sea coast, on our 
lakes, or on our rivers — wherever a mole or pier has been construct- 
ed or begun — wherever a channel obstructed by shoals or sawyers 
has been opened, or begun to be opened — wherever a canal or rail- 
road, adapted to national uses, has been made or projected, there the 
engineers of the United States, during the Administration of John 
Quincy Adams, made explorations, and opened the way for a diligent 
prosecution of his designs by his successors. This policy, apparently 
so stupendous, was connected with a system of fiscal economy so ri- 
gorous, that the Treasury augmented its stores, while the work of 
improvement went on; the public debt, contracted in past wars, dis- 
solved away, and the nation flourished in unexampled prosperity. 
John Quincy Adams administered the Federal Government, while 
De Witt Clinton was presiding in the State of New-York. It is 
refreshing to recall the noble emulation of these illustrious Benefac- 
tors — an emulation that shows how inseparable Sound Philosophy is 
from True Patriotism. 

If [said Adams, in his first annual message to the Congress of the United States,] 
the powers enumerated may be effectually brought into action by, laws promoting 
the improvement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, the cultivation and 
encouragement of the Mechanic arts, and of the elegant arts, the advancement ol 
literature, and the progress of the sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from 
exercising them for the benefit of the people, would be to hide in the earth the talent. 
«oramitted to our charge, would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts. The 
apirit of Improvement is abroad up/on the earth. It stimulates the hearts, and 



25 

sharpens the faculties, not of our fellow citizens alone, but of the nations of Europe, 
and of their Rulers. While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon the superior 
excellence of oar political Institutions, let us not be unmindful that Libert}' is Power, 
that the nation blessed with the largest portion of Liberty, must in proportion to its 
numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by 
man is, in the moral purposes of his creator, upon condition that it shall be exercis- 
ed to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself, and his fellow men. 
While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power, than ourselves, 
are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were wo 
to slumber in indolence, or fold our arms and proclaim to the world that we are 
palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of 
Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority ? In the course of the year 
now drawing to its close, we have beheld under the auspices, and at the expense of 
one State of this Union, a cew ui iversity unfoldi.ig its pi itals to the sons of science, 
and holding up the torch of human improvement to eyes that seek the light.* We 
have seen, under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State, the 
waters of our Western Lakes mingle with those of the Ocean. If undertakings like 
these have been accomplished, in the compass of a few years, by the authority of 
single members of our confederacy, »ean we the representative authorities of the 
whole Union, fall behind our fellow servants, in the exercise of the trust committed 
to us for the benefit of our common sovereign, by the accomplishment of works im- 
portant to the whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any one- 
State can be adequate ? 

The disastrous career of many of the States, antl the absolute in- 
action of others, since t'ae responsibilities of Internal Improvement 
have been cast off by the Federal authorities, and devolved upon the 
S[ates, without other sources of revenue than direct taxation, and 
with no other motives to stimulate them than their own local in- 
terests, arc a fitting commentary on the error of that departure irooi 
the policy of John Quinoy Adams. If other comment were necessary, 
it would be found in the fact that States have revised and amended 
their constitutions, so as to abridge the power of their Legislatures 
to prosecute the beneficent enterprises which the Federal Government 
has devolved upon them. The Smithsonian Institute, at the seat of 
Government, founded by the liberality of a Cosmopolite, is that same 
university so earnestly recommended by Adams for the increase and 
diffusion of knowledge among men. The exploration of the globe, 
for purposes of geographical and political knowledge, which has so 
recently been made under the authority of the Union, and with such 

* Tha University of Virginia. 



26 

noble results, was an enterprise conceived and suggested by the same 
statesman. The National Observatory at the Capital which is pierc- 
ing the regions nearest to the throne of the eternal author of the 
Universe, is an emanation of the same comprehensive wisdom. 

Such was the administration of John Quincv Adams. Surely it 
exhibits enough done for duty and for fame — if the ancient philo- 
sopher said truly, that the duty of a Statesman was to make the citi- 
zens happy, to make them firm in power, rich in wealth, splendid in 
glory, and eminent in virtue, and that such achievements were the 
greatest and best of all works among men. 

But the measure of duty was not yet fulfilled. The Republic 
thought it no longer had need of the services of Adams, and he bow- 
ed to its command. Two years elapsed, and lo ! the Priest was seen 
again beside the d ! ted Altar, and a brighter, purer, and more last- 
ing flame arose out o[ the extinguished embers. 

'•' He looked in year?. Tut in his years were seen 
" A youthful vigor, an autumnal green." 

The Republic had been extended and consolidated ; but Human 
Slavery, which had been incorporated in it, was extended and con- 
solidated also, and was spreading, so as to impair the strength of the 
great fabric on which the hopes of the nations were suspended. Sla- 
very therefore must be restrained, and without violence or injustice, 
must be abolished. The difficult task of removing it had been post- 
poned by the Statesmen of ihe Revolution, and had been delayed 
and forgotten by their successors. There were now resolute hearts 
and willing hands to undertake it, but who was strong enough, and 
bold enough to lead 1 Who had patience to bear with enthusiasm 
that overleaped its mark, and with intolerance that defeated its own 
generous purposes ? Slave holders had power, nay, the national 
power ; and strange to say, they had it with the nation's consent 
and sympathy. Who was bold enough to provoke them, and bring 
the execration of the nation down upon his own head ? Who would 
do this, when even Abolitionists themselves, rendered implacable by 
the manifestation of those sentiments of justice and moderation, with 



27 

out which the most humane cause depending on a change of public 
opinion, cannot be conducted safely to a prosperous end, were ready 
to betray their own champion into the hands of the avenger ? That 
leader was found in the person of John Quincy Adams. He took his seat 
in the House of Representatives in 1831 without assumption or ostenta- 
tion. Abolitionists placed in his hand, petitions for the suppression of 
Slavery in the District of Columbia, the seat of the Federal autho- 
rities. He offered them to the House of Representatives, and they 
Were rejected with contumely and scorn. Suddenly the alarm went 
forth, that the aged and venerable servant was retaliating upon his 
country by instigating a servile war, that such a war must be avoid- 
ed, even at the cost of sacrificing the freedom of Petition and the 
freedom of Debate, and that if the Free States, would not consent to 
make that sacrifice, then the Union should be dissolved. This alarm 
had its desired effect. The House of Representatives in 1837, adopt- 
ed a rule of discipline, equivalent to an act, ordaining that no peti- 
tion relating to Slavery, nearly or remotely, should be read, de- 
bated or considered. The Senate adopted a like edict. The State 
authorities approved. Slavery was not less strongly entrench- 
ed, behind the bulwark of precedents in the courts of law, 
than in the fixed habits of thought and action among the people. 
The people even in the free States denounced the discussion of Sla- 
very, and suppressed it by unlawful force. John Quincy Adams 
stood unmoved amid the storm. He knew that the only danger inci- 
dent to political reform, was the danger of delaying it too long. 
The French Revolution had made this an axiom of political science. 
If, indeed, the discussion of Slavery was so hazardous as was pre- 
tended, it had been deferred too long already. The advocates of 
Slavery had committed a latal error. They had abolished freedom 
of Speech and freedom of Petition to save an obnoxious institution. 
As soon as the panic should subside, the people would demand the 
restoration of those precious rights, and would scrutinize with fear- 
less fidelity the cause for which they had been suppressed. He of- 
fered petition after petition, each bolder and more importunate than 



2S 

the last. He debated questions, kindred to those which were for- 
bidden, with the firmness and fervor of his noble nature. For age 

Had not quenched the open truth 
And fiery vehemence of youth. 

Soon lie gained upon his adversaries. District after district sent 
champions to his side. States reconsidered and resolved in his be- 
half. He saw the tide was turning, and then struck one bold blow, 
not now for Freedom of Petition and of Debate, but a stroke of bold 
and retaliating warfare. He offered a resolution declaring that the 
following amendments of the Constitution of the United States be 
submitted to the People of the several States lor their adoption: 

From and after the fourth day of July, 1S42, there shall be, throughout the United 
States, no hereditary SLAVERY, but on and after that day every child born within 
the United States shall be free. 

With the exception of the Territory of Florida, there shall henceforth, never be 
admitted into this Union, any State the Constitution of which shall tolerate within 
the same the existence of slavery. 

In 1S45, the obnoxious Rule of the House of Representatives was 
rescinded. The Freedom of Debate and of Petition was restored, and 
the unrestrained and irrepressible Discussion of Slavery by the Press 
and Political Parties began. For the rest, the work of Emancipation 
abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of 
the American People. It depends not on the zeal and firmness only 
of the Reformers, but on their wisdom and moderation also. Stoicism 
that had no charity for error, never converted any human society to 
virtue; Christianity that remembers the true nature of man, has en- 
compassed a large portion of the globe. How lo T .g Emancipation 
may be delayed is among the things concealed from our knowledge, but 
not so the certain result. The perils of the enterprise are already passed 
— its difficulties have already been removed — when it shall have been 
accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble effort which 
rendered the Rej ublic imperishable. 



29 

Then the merit of the great achievement will be awarded to John 
Quikcy Adams; and by none more gratefully than by the communi- 
ties on whom the instil uiion of slavery has brought the calamity of 
premature and consumptive decline in the midst of free, vigorous and 
expanding States. 

If this great transaction could be surpassed in dramatic sublimity, 
it was surpassed when the same impassioned advocate of Humanity 
appeared, at the age of Seventy-four, with all the glorious associa- 
tions that now clustered upon him, at the bar of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, and pleaded without solicitation or reward, the 
cause of Cinque and thirty other Africans, who had been stolen by a 
Spanish Slaver bom their native coast, had slain the master and 
crew of the pirate vessel, floated into the waters of the United States, 
and there been claimed by the President, in behalf of the authorities 
of Spain. He pleaded this great cause with such happy effect, that 
the captives were set at liberty. Conveyed by the charity of the hu- 
mane to their native shores, they bore the pleasing intelligence to 
Africa, that Justice was at last claiming sway among Civilized and 
Christian Men! 

The recital of heroic actions loses its chief value, if we cannot 
discover the principles in which they were born. The text of John 
Quincy Adams, from which he deduced the duties of citizens, and of 
the Republic, was the address of the Continental Congress to the 
People of the United States, on the occasion of the successful close 
of the American Revolution. He dwelt often and emphatically on 
the words : 

Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the pride and the boast of America, 
that the Rights for which she contended were the Rights of Human Nature. By the 
blessing of the Author of those Rights, they have prevailed over all opposition, and 
form the Basis of Thirteen independent States. No instance has heretofore occurred 
nor can any instance be expected hereafter to occur, in which the unadulterated forms 
of Republican Government can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying them- 
selves by their fruits. In this view, the citizens of the United States are responsible 
for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If Justice, Good 
Faith, Honor, Gratitude, and all the other qualities which ennoble the character 
of a nation and fulfil the ends of Government , be the fruits of our establishments, the 



30 

cause of Liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, 
and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on 
Mankind. If, on the other side, our Governments should be unfortunately blotted 
with the reverse of these cardinal virtues, tho Great Cause which we have engaged 
to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest experiment in favor 
of tho Rights of Human Nature will bo turned against them, and their patrons and 
friends exposed to the insults, and silenced by tho votaries of Tyranny and usurpa- 
tion. 

Senators and Representatives of the People of the Slate of 
New- York : I had turned my steps away from your honored Halls, 
long since, as I thought forever. I come back to them by your 
command, to fulfill a higher duty, and more honorable service than 
ever before devolved upon me. I repay your generous confidence, 
by offering to you this exposition of the duties of the magistrate and 
of the citizen. It is the same which John Qlincy Adams gave to 
the Congress of the United States, in his Oration on the Death of 
James Madison. It is the key to his own exalted character, and it 
enables us to measure the benefits he conferred upon his country. If 
then you ask, what motive enabled him to rise above parties, sects, 
combinations, prejudices, passions, and seductions, I answer, that he 
served his country, not alone, or chiefly because that country was his 
own, but because he knew her duties, and her destiny, and knew her 
cause was the cause of Human Nature. 

If you enquire why he was so rigorous in virtue as to be often 
thought austere, I answer, it was because Human Nature required 
the exercise of Justice, Honor and Gratitude, by all who were 
clothed with authority to act in the name of the American Peo- 
pie. If you ask why he seemed, sometimes, with apparent inconsis- 
tency, to lend his charities to the Distant and the Future rather than to 
his own Kindred and Times, 1 reply, it was because he held that the 
tenure of human power is on condition of its being beneficently ex- 
ercised for the common welfare of the Human Race. Such Men are 
of no Co.intry. They belong to Mankind. If we cannot rise to this 
height of virtue, we cannot hope to comprehend the character of 
John Quincy Adams, or understand the homage paid by the Ameri- 
can People to his memory. 



31 

Need it be said that John Quincy Adams studied Justice, Honor 
and Gratitude, not by the false standards of the age, but by their 
own true nature. He generalized truth, and traced it always to its 
source, the bosom of God. Thus in his defence of the Arnistad cap- 
tives he began with defining justice in the language of Justinian, 
" Constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendi." He 
quoted on the same occasion from the Declaration of Independence, 
not by way of rhetorical embellishment, and not even as a valid hu- 
man ordinance, but as a truth of nature, of universal application, the 
memorable words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights, and that among these rights are Life, 
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." In his vindication of the 
Right of Debate, he declared that the principle that religious opin- 
ions were altogether beyond the sphere of Legislative control, was 
but one modification of a more extensive axiom, which included the 
unbounded freedom of the Press, and of Speed), and of the communica- 
tion of Thought in all its forms. He rested the inviolability of the 
right of Petition, not on Constitutions, or Charters which might be 
glossed, abrogated or expunged, but in the inherent right of every 
animate creature to pray to its superior. 

The model by which he formed his character was Cicero. Not 
the living Cickro, sometimes inconsistent; often irresolute; too often 
seeming to act a studied part; and always covetous of applause. 
But Cicero, as he aimed to br, and as he appears revealed in those 
immortal emanations of his genius which have been the delight and 
guide of intellect and virtue in every succeeding age. Like the 
Roman, Adams was an orator, but he did not fall into the error of 
the Roman, in practically valuing eloquence more than the be.iefi- 
cence to which it should be devoted. Like him he was a Statesman 
and Magistrate worthy to be called " The second Founder of the Re- 
public," — like him a teacher of Didactic Philosophy, of morals, and 
even of his own peculiar art; and like him he made all liberal 



«■ 



3 



learning tributary to that noble art, while Poetry was the insepara- 
ble companion of his genius in its hours of relaxation from the la- 
bors of the Forum and of the Capitol. 

Like him he loved only the society of good men. and by his ge- 
nerous praise of such, illustrated the Roman's beautiful aphorism, 
that no one can be envious of good deeds, who has confidence in his 
own virtue. LikeCiCERO he kept himself unstained by social or do- 
mestic vices; preserved serenity and cheerfulness; cherished habitual 
reverence for the Deity, and dwelt continually, not on the mystic theo- 
'logy of the schools, but on the hopes of a better life. He lived in 
what will be regarded as the virtuous ao'e of his countrv, while 
Ciceko was surrounded by an overwhelming degeneracy. He had 
the light of Christianity for his guide; and its sublime motives as 
incitements to virtue: while Cicero had only the confused instruc- 
tions of the Grecian Schools, and saw nothing certainly attainable 
but present applause and future' fame. In moral courage, therefore, 
he excelled his model and rivalled Cato. But Cato was a visiona- 
ry, who insisted upon his right to act always without reference to 
the condition of mankind, as he should have acted in Plato's ima- 
ginary Republic. Adams stood in this respect midway between the 
impracticable Stoic and the too flexible Academician. He had no 
occasion to say, as the Grecian orator did, that if he had sometimes 
acted contrary to himself, he had never acted contrary to the Repub- 
lic; but he might justly have said, as the noble Roman did " I have 
rendered to my country all the great services which she was willing 
to receive at my hands, and I have never harbored a thought con- 
cerning her that was not divine." 

More fortunate than Cicero, who fell a victim of civil wars which 
he could not avert, Adams was permitted to linger on the earth, until 
the generations of that future age, for whom he had lived and to 
whom he had appealed from the condemnation of contemporaries, 
came up before the curtain which had shut out his sight, and pro- 



33 

nounced over him, as he was sinking into the grave, their judgment 
of Approval and Benediction. 

The distinguished characteristics of his life were beneficent lakor 
and personal contentment. He never sought wealth, but devoted 
himself to the service of mankind. Yet by the practice of frugality 
and method, he secured the enjoyment of dealing forth continually 
no stinted charities, and died in affluence. He never solicited place 
or preferment, and had no partizan combinations or even connections; 
yet he received honors which eluded the covetous grasp of those 
who formed parties, rewarded friends and proscribed enemies; anil 
he filled a longer period of varied and distinguished service thai' 
ever fell to the lot of any other citizen. In every stage of this pro- 
gress he was content. He was content to be President, Minister, 
Representative or Citizen. 

Stricken in the midst of this service, in the very act of rising to 
debate, he fell into the arms of Conscript Fathers of the Republic. 
A long lethargy supervened and oppressed his senses. Nature ral- 
lied the wasting powers, on the ver^e of the grave, for a very brief 
period. But it was long enough for him. The re-kindled eye show- 
ed that the re-collected mind was clear, calm and vigorous. His 
weeping family, and his sorrowing compeers were there. He sur- 
veyed the scene, and knew at once its fatal import. He had left no 
duty unperformed; he had no wish unsatisfied; no ambition unat- 
tained; no regret, no sorrow, no fear, no remorse. He could not 
shake off the dews of death that gathered on his brow. He could 
not pierce the thick shades that rose up before him. But he knew 
that Eternity lay close by the shores of Time. He knew that his 
Redeemer lived. Eloquence, even in that hour, inspired him with 
his ancient sublimity of utterance. " This," said the dying man, 
" This is the eno of earth." He paused for a moment, and then 
added, " I am content." Angels might well draw aside the curtains 
of the skies to look down on such a scene — a scene that approxima- 



34 

ted even to that scene of unapproachable sublimity, not to be re-cal- 
led without reverence, when in mortal agony, One who spake as 
never man spake, said, " It is finished." 

Only two years after the birth of John Quincy Adams, there ap- 
peared on an Island in the Mediterranean Sea, a Human Spirit new- 
ly born, endowed with equal genius, without the regulating qualities 
of Justice and benevolence which Adams possessed in an eminent 
degree. A like career opened to both — Horn like Adams, a subject 
of a King — the child of more genial skies, like him, became in ear- 
ly life a patriot and a citizen of a new and great Republic. Like 
Adams he lent his service to the State in precocious youth, and in 
its hour of need, and won its confidence. But unlike Adams he 
could not wait the dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure ad- 
vancement. He sought power by the hasty road that leads through 
fields of carnage, and he became like Adams, a Supreme Magistrate, 
a Consul. But there were other Consuls. He was not content. 
He thrust them aside, and was Consul alone. Consular power was 
too short. He fought new battles and was Consul for life. But 
Power, confessedly derived from the People, must be exercised in 
obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at least 
in death. He was not content. He desolated Europe afresh, sub- 
verted the Republic, imprisoned the Patriarch who presided over 
Rome's comprehensive See, and obliged him to pour on his head the 
sacred oil that made the persons of Kings divine, and their right to 
reign indefeasible. He was an Emperor. But he saw around him a 
mother, brothers and sisters, not ennobled; whose humble state re- 
minded him, and the world, that he was born a Plebian; and he had 
no heir to wait impatient for the Imperial Crown. He scourged the 
earth again, and again Fortune smiled on him even in his wild ex- 
travagance. He bestowed Kingdoms and Principalities upon his 
kindred — put away the devoted wife of his youthful days, and an- 
other, a daughter of Hapsburgh's Imperial house, joyfully accepted 
his proud alliance. Offspring gladdened his anxious sight; a dia- 
dem was placed on its infant brow, and it received the homage of 



35 

princes, even in its cradle. Now he was indeed a monarch' — a le- 
gitimate Monarch — a Monarch by Divine appointment — the first of an 
endless succession of Monarchs. But there were other Monarchs who 
held sway in the Earth. He was not content, He would reign with 
his kindred alone. He gathered new and greater armies, from his 
own land — from subjugated lands. He called forth the young and 
brave — one from every household — from the Pyrenees to the Zuy- 
der Zee — 'from Jura to the Ocean. He marshalled them into long 
and majestic columns, and went forth to seize that universal domin- 
ion, which seemed almost within his grasp. But Ambition had 
tempted Fortune too far. The nations of the Earth resisted, repelled, 
pursued, surrounded him. The pageant was ended. The Crown fell 
from his presumptuous head. The wife who had wedded him in his pride 
forsook him when the hour of fear came upon him. His child was 
ravished from his sight. His kinsmen were degraded to their first 
Estate, and he was no longer Emperor, nor Consul, nor General, nor 
even a Citizen, but an Exile and a Prisoner, on a lonely Island, in 
the midst of the wi'd Atlantic. Discontent attended him there. The 
wayward man fretted out a few long years of his yet unbroken man- 
hood, looking off at the earliest dawn and in evening's latest twilight, 
towards that distant world that had only just eluded his grasp. His 
heart corroded. Death came, not unlooked for, though it came even 
then unwelcome. He was stretched on his bed within the foit which 
constituted his Prison. A few fast and faithful friends stood around, 
with the guards who rejoiced that the hour of relief from long and 
wearisome watching, was at hand. As his strength wasted away, 
delirium stirred up the brain from its long and inglorious inactivity. 
The Pageant of Ambition returned. He was again a Lieutenant, a 
General, a Consul, an Emperor of France. He filled again the 
throne of Charlemagne. His kindred pressed around him, again re- 
invested with the pompous pageantry of Royalty. The Daughter of 
the long line of Kings again stood proudly by his side, and the sunny 
face of his Child shone out from beneath the diadem that encircled 
its flowing locks. The Marshals of the Empire awaited his com- 
mand. The legions of the Old Guard were in the field, their scarred 



36 

faces rejuvenated, and their ranks, thinned in many battles, replen- 
ished. Russia, Prussia, Austria, Denmark and England, gathered 
their mighty hosts to give him battle. Once more he mounted his 
impatient charger, and rushed forth to conquest. He waved his 
sword aloft and cried " Tete d'Armee." The feverish vision broke 
— the mockery was ended. The silver cord was loosed, and the 
warrior fell back upon his bed a lifeless corpse. This was the End 
of Earth. The Corsican was not content. 

Statesmen and Citizens ! The contrast suggests its own impres- 
sive moral. 



